The Restoration of Celia Fairchild - Marie Bostwick Page 0,114

and Mrs. Cavanaugh were most definitely not from down here.

“Becca liked the garden too,” I said. “I told her about what a mess it had been before Teddy started working on it, how he’d cleaned out the weeds and trimmed back the trees. She was curious about him, asked a couple of questions before her parents came upstairs.”

“That seems like a good sign,” Happy said.

“I thought so too. Until Teddy actually showed up. With the dogs.” I dropped my head to the table and groaned.

“Oh, no,” Felicia murmured, putting her hand to her mouth. “They didn’t.”

Head still down, staring at the tabletop, I gave an exaggerated nod. “They did. They jumped all over everybody, barking and going crazy. Teddy was yelling at them to knock it off even while he was introducing himself, saying how much he loved babies and that he had been adopted and it was fine, so Becca shouldn’t feel bad about giving up the baby because he’d turned out okay and had a good job and was so excited about being an uncle, and then asked her did she like coffee because Bitty and Beau’s has the best lattes in Charleston and if she ever came in, he’d give her one on the house.”

“Oh, no,” Felicia said again.

“Oh, yes,” I said and picked up my head. “All of a sudden, he turns into a chatterbox. Honestly, it wouldn’t have been that bad if not for the dogs. The only time I saw Becca truly smile was when Teddy started talking to her. But while Teddy is spilling his guts to Becca, Pebbles decides to do her party trick and jump right into Mrs. Cavanaugh’s arms. She wasn’t expecting it so, of course, instead of catching the dog, she threw out her hands to shield herself, then lost her balance, and fell backward onto the nursery windowsill, and . . .”

I waved my hand over my head with a dramatic flourish, prodding them to fill in the blank. They did and almost in unison.

“It was still wet? No!”

“Yes! Mrs. Cavanaugh fell backward into wet paint. When she got up, there was a big white streak across her derriere.” I thumped my forehead onto the table.

“It’s over. I’m doomed. Doomed.” Felicia squeezed my shoulder.

“When are you supposed to hear back?” Priscilla asked.

“Anne didn’t give me a definite date,” I said. “Maybe next week?”

“Okay, well. You’ll know when you know, right? Until then—”

“I’ll sit home, waiting for the phone to ring. And drinking tea.” I took the stopper out of the bourbon bottle and added a little more to my glass.

“Bad plan,” Polly said. “Trust me on this. I haven’t spent four years going to AA meetings for nothing.”

“Don’t be so gloomy. The lawyer liked you,” Caroline said in a clarifying sort of tone. “That should help.

“That’s right,” Happy added encouragingly. “You said before that you thought she was on your side.”

“Before today, I thought she was. Now I’m not so sure. Even if I’m wrong, it doesn’t matter. Mrs. Cavanaugh is obviously the one who makes the decisions, and she hates me.”

“Stop,” Caroline said. “You don’t know that.”

Except I did.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Nine days had passed since the home visit. Still no call.

My friends meant well. They had done their best to buoy my spirits, to distract me by working on our projects, calling, or dropping by to check on me, and just generally to help me hold it together.

And it helped. For a while.

But now it was time to face reality, because spending my nights lying awake and the days staring into space, and launching into panic attacks every time the phone rang was not working for me. Or anybody else. Teddy was anxious. Even the dogs were upset. Pebbles had stopped eating and refused to leave my side.

Knowing that my chance for happiness had passed me by was terrible, but the not knowing, the waiting, was even worse. I just couldn’t do it anymore.

“I just don’t know what I should do next,” I told Calvin, while glancing at an advert for an online master’s program on my laptop. “I’d always planned to go back to the city if things didn’t work out. But now Teddy’s part of the equation. I can’t just say, ‘Hey, sorry but things didn’t work out like I’d hoped, so you’re on your own.’ He loves it here.

“Maybe I should just let him have the house? He could keep on living here, I’d go back to New York and come visit sometimes. But .